Albeit me saying that I will never get another VL again, here I am. I quickly got bored of my VX SS as I ran into several issues with it… so traded her for a 1986 America’s Cup VL Turbo. I thought the deal was fairly good, however, I quickly learned that it wasn’t.

She was starting to blow white smoke, I didn’t think much of it, and continued driving it. However I was losing a significant amount of coolant every time I drove it. So she got parked up and I got a mate to come round and diagnose the issue (as I had not a clue what was wrong with it). At this point it was discovered that the turbo had been hooked up wrong, by the ex-owner. This is where the list of problems started…

At this current stage in time, I may turbo her, but it will most likely be low mount, however, this may change in the future. I only say this as I intend to buy a Calais to make big HP with and keep this as a daily.
As she sits at the moment she has the current modifications:

Crazy how many documents and stuff came with the car. It even has birthday cards commemorating its first birthday and the original vehicle AD.. Here's some more pictures I took today. (Yes, there is a few..)

Cheers man. She has a stock ECU in it because old owner probably didn't know **** all about what to do, so gotta go get one of them. Also injectors are stock hence why its only running 5PSI gonna go pickup some turbo ones or some ****. Dunno what size though? There is also a powersteering leak near the rack so gotta fix that.

I'll get a few pics tomorrow, only have one badge on the inside as the previous owner removed the outer ones... bloody moron. The owner previous to the guy I got it off has been a real good help, especially with some of the issues I've been experiencing.. At the moment I need to look into why she's blowing white smoke on cold start up. Its not the head, but it might be the turbo not being fed oil or water. One of the two. Old mate is gonna come down and have a look next weekend *Hopefully* to try and decipher the issue. After which I'm gonna have to blow like $400 + on new injectors, spark plugs and ECU.

Then I can finally start doing other stuff like chucking on some pursuits, sourcing some venetians etc etc.

my only advice is buy quality from the start, otherwise your costs will blow out as cheap **** doesnt last

Will do man haha. Gonna make sure she runs well and has the best parts in her. At the moment however, I have to diagnose as to what the old owner f*cked up in regards to the turbo install, as he probs f*cked something somewhere.

You're about 8 years too late for the prime days of VL's, but good luck with the new money pit anyway.
Americas Cup edition is something that doesn't show up too often at all!

I know man Most VL's nowadays are locked up, not running, unrego'd or simply just not in this state. Thanks but man I will sure enjoy her

Yeah especially one in this condition mate, its got pretty much no rust at all just one or two small insignificant spots around the car. Hell theres no rust in the boot at all... its crazy haha. Much better than my old VL.

Cheers man. As soon as I get the money, I'll jump onto it.
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So at the moment, I currently need the following (probably going to grow by next weekend when I see a mate to see why its blowing white smoke....)

Personally I'd recommend a nistune. I've had a few different aftermarket ecu's but I really rate the nistune. It's cheap at like 880 installed and tuned, you don't need to butcher your wiring harness, no cold start issues, the only downside is that it retains the AFM, so reverb from the turbo can cause it to stall. There are some pretty simple ways around that though like convoluted intake piping. Hyperdrive has done the one in my corolla, and touchup/retunes are pretty cheap too.

Another limitation are 1000cc+ injectors become difficult to tune (not really an issue unless you want to run e85 any time soon)

Personally I'd recommend a nistune. I've had a few different aftermarket ecu's but I really rate the nistune. It's cheap at like 880 installed and tuned, you don't need to butcher your wiring harness, no cold start issues, the only downside is that it retains the AFM, so reverb from the turbo can cause it to stall. There are some pretty simple ways around that though like convoluted intake piping. Hyperdrive has done the one in my corolla, and touchup/retunes are pretty cheap too.

Another limitation are 1000cc+ injectors become difficult to tune (not really an issue unless you want to run e85 any time soon)

Cheers man I'll look into it. Just need to make some money haha. Injectors will probably sit there for a while till I fix everything wrong with her. Seriously considering selling some of my gaming gear to fund her.. but we'll see.